Google has officially opened up the toy chest and taken out YouTube Kids, its gift to parents all over the US. The app searches YouTube for the content that's appropriate for the little ones and dishes it out to them in an easily navigable interface that places less of an emphasis on search, keywords, and spelling.

The search giant has reportedly worked on YouTube Kids for quite a while, and by late last week, today's launch date had already leaked out. But the immediate availability of the app marks our first chance to go hands-on. Here's a look at what parents and children alike can expect from YouTube Kids.

Getting Around

At the top of the screen there's a navigation bar of sorts with tabs for TV shows, music, educational content, and general browsing. A large search button sits off to the right, and after a kid views a few clips, a Recommended tab will appear that serves as the app's homepage. Music hums in the background, and each time a child taps on any of these sections, an adorable sound effect eases out of their device's speakers.

I did encounter a couple of ads while testing out the app, and just like with regular YouTube, I was able to skip them after five seconds. None of them featured content I would consider worse than commercials typically aimed at kids.

Parental Settings

There isn't much parents have to look out for here, but there are a few options. These settings are tucked away behind a randomly generated PIN that the app provides with the words written out, keeping out only the youngest of users. Once in, parents can set a timer that cuts tykes off when enough is enough and, to really shield the little ones, disable search entirely. They can also turn off the background music if their kids are starting to drive them crazy with it.

It's worth pointing out that the app isn't screen-pinned, so unless you're running Lollipop and can do so using its built-in feature, kids will still be able to back out and access everything else you have on your tablet. That's one option we would like to see appear in the future.

Search

Out of the box, search already filters out the vast majority of what's available on YouTube. The app refuses to search for some terms, such as sex acts and private body parts. When it comes to violent terms, things are more ambiguous. The app won't search for "gore," but it will check for "blood." However, the latter generally comes up in a first-aid related context, so it checks out.

"Guns," on the other hand, brings up a long list of results, most of which deals with music (such as learning to play Guns & Roses on a guitar), TV shows (TaleSpin's 148th episode is titled "Jumping the Guns"), or other general clips (using a glue gun, listing Minecraft guns, etc.). For the searches that do bring up hits, there aren't all that many results, and I didn't come across any content that should have parents rushing to turn the feature off.

Download

There is one piece of information that differs from what we previously reported. This isn't an Android exclusive launch. It's available right away on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. While there was talk about a subscription service, as of now, the full experience is available for free.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch episodes of Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin for the remainder of the day.

Since Google appears to have limited YouTube Kids' Play Store availability to the US, we would like to point everyone to APK Mirror, where the app is ready for download. You can find the link below.

End of Update

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

It's for kids. I think that for them it's more like a game than an app...
Games don't need to follow material design.

Gerardo Sarabia

I agree, but at least the icon could have been a little more material design, it looks like an iOS icon.

but nobody cares less about material design than Google.

Android Developer

It is a weird icon. Reminds me of the game "Etch a sketch" .

hp420

no spell check!!!

Diaz1999

keyboard check!!!

Roh_Mish

No.

Spasillium

dat search query tho ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Cornelius Bobb

I guess the US is the only country that exists according to Google....

A mí no me pagan por opinar

*according to the US.

Rami

Italy gives me message "not compatible with your country"...

Ian

What are you talking about? The map of the world on my wall only has the United States and then some grey stuff above and below.

Ma19

Is there a YouTube adults?

A mí no me pagan por opinar

YouPorn.

Тарас Мукин

You pervert. We were talking about YouTube with something every grown male love -- superhero comic cartoons! Wait wha~

Gus70

Google,
Where is the YouTube Kids app for Android TV Nexus Player support? I hope this is coming soon. Anyone know if you can sideload?

cgioconda

Now all I need is Amazon to release this through the Amazon App Store, so I can use it with Kindle FreeTime.

Тарас Мукин

How It Works? User-friendly How-To for "YouTube Kids"
Step 1: Start saving money
Step 2: Work hard to have Green Card
Step 3: Spend 5 years of your life and your children's lifes to learn English
Step 4: Move to US
Step 5: Live on the streets trying to have an appropriate job
Step 6: Get a job at cleaning
Step 7: Start saving money again
Step 8: Improve your job and your income to be able to rent a flat.
Step 9: Start saving for Internet connection and a tablet
Step 10: Go to your child's marriage
Step 11: Wait until you have grandchild at the age of at least 5
Step 12: Discover that Google, Apple and US Government became one organization and finally successfully launched Skynet.
Step 13: Die in an atomic bomb explosion.

This doesn't really impress me. My kids are only 7 and 8 and they have already outgrown this content. They're on to Minecraft videos. So the target audience is 3-6 ? At this age it's no too hard to keep them safe with the regular app with even light supervision. Once the kid it taking it to their rooms on their Nabi they will have outgrown this super tight ecosystem.

si3ge

incoming perhaps's...
perhaps they need to have a selector that chooses the age range of the child?
perhaps they are already planning on doing this with future updates?
perhaps more moderation info is needed for them to differentiate what is ok for that age range?

i agree that its not too helpful for those kids but my son is almost 3 and this is probably perfect for him. he does get supervised but he is pretty savvy with how to click on linked or thumbnailed videos. anything that catches his eye, hes smashing his finger on that thing. so while its not an essential app, its not unwelcome. ill sure give it a shot and see how he likes it. I see this is not ONLY a way to moderate kids but also a way to easily deliver the content they want to see instead of needing a parent to search for them to start it up.

Simon Belmont

I'll give this a shot for my 2.5 year old. He loves Daniel Tiger, so that seems like a good start (though we have it on Netflix, and I usually just Chromecast it to the TV, but this could be good for trips or something with the simplified interface over Netflix's).

Definitely seems like a good place for screen pinning, as mentioned in the article. Too bad the app can't do it itself without Lollipop.

anooon

So the video has kids searching for Dracula and Frankenstein... How is that age appropriate? Dracula is a vampire that sucks peoples blood and Frankenstein is a mindless killer....

Not one positive thing to say! Your mothers and fathers should be spanked on all four of their cheeks. Your upbringing sucks and your parents failed. Do you know how much work goes into making these apps? Where is your amazing, super awesome, and non-flawed apps. The ones you giveaway for free? Why don't you show us how it should be done? Make the perfect app then put your 2 cents in. Try saying something nice once in a while instead of being so damn negative all the time. Material design this, chromecast that, etc. Bunch of doom clouds the lot of you.

asjstian

no support for chromecast it looks like :(

Stanley C.

YouTube adults will be releases outside US :-D :-P

shamatuu

Don't know why need a another app that does the same thing. I find this unnecessary. More bloatware

MrJayTee74

Kids don't like immersive mode?

Kurama91

I hate the fact that it's only available in US. I call it racism. why only US???

Kurama91

the app is more than amazing but it's not perfect. I typed some random words, it gave me some fashion videos. I wonder why kids need to watch that???